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Michael Jackson to Deliver More New Music From Beyond the Grave

xscape

In the grand tradition of Elvis Presley, Tupac, and most recently Johnny Cash, Michael Jackson is delivering new music from beyond the grave.

The Jackson camp announced today that a new album titled "Xscape" will be released on May 13 via Epic Records, and it's not just a compilation of previously released tracks. Rather, the set will include "eight new tracks, which the world will be hearing for the very first time," according to the press release announcing the album.

Given that Jackson is a huge cash cow, dead or alive, the album is a huge priority for Epic Records, so much so that Epic Chairman/CEO L.A. Reid served as executive producer of the set. After the singer's estate went through Jackson's archives, they handed over the material, spanning four decades, to Reid; who cherry-picked the final list of tracks to present to a team of producers.

What those producers did with the material might not sit well with purists. Reid says in a statement the material went through a process he calls "contemporizing," which essentially means they retooled the tracks to make them sound more contemporary. The team of producers taking on that task include Timbaland, Rodney Jerkins, Stargate, Jerome "Jroc" Harmon, and John McClain.

Veteran producer Quincy Jones, with whom Jackson had his greatest success, doesn't appear to be involved in this new project, unless some outtakes he produced are included. The producers who worked on "Xscape" either have previous ties to Jackson or he had expressed interest in working with him, according to Reid. Perhaps most significantly, Jerkins co-wrote and produced the title track with Jackson. It just never made it onto an album while Jackson was still with us.

"Xscape" is just the latest venture in the posthumous Jackson business that extends beyond recordings to live performances. In conjunction with Cirque du Soleil, the Jackson Estate has staged "Michael Jackson The Immortal World Tour," which in the No. 9 top-grossing tour of all time; and "Michael Jackson One," which continues to do brisk business at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas.

They've also released the film and soundtrack "This Is It," documenting Jackson's rehearsals for the British dates he planned prior to his death, as well as the 2010 vault-digging collection "Michael." Both releases were successful with "This Is It" topping the Billboard 200, while "Michael" made it to No. 3, proving that even in death, Michael Jackson is still big business.

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